it’s not a blunt, it’s a joint or a spliff. Blunts are wrapped in cigar/tobacco leaves. Her spliff is white which means she used wrapping papers or a cigarette.
Clif
Well, that does explain Carla’s original comment. And here I thought she got high on engineering.
Kaidah
Carla gets high on Carla.
Wack'd
Huh!
Marsh Maryrose
If I’m remembering correctly, Clif is one of the few other codgers like myself who has actually used a slide rule.
And is therefore presumptivley familiar, from a young age, with the wildwood weed.
Bicycle Bill
I was trained in the proper care and feeding of a slipstick too.
Ryek Hvek
Slide rules rule ~ Cackle-ators drool
Geneseepaws
I saw one in rosewood and real ivory once, it was from the late 18th Century. It was very pretty wood work, but was too big and bulky. I still have my K+E in the real leath box. But no longer have the round one. Dunno where it went.
Needfuldoer
Is that what you’d call the little crop growing in the back corner of the gas station lot, where everyone dumped their ashtrays?
So, does this refer to a specific manga series or does it happen in most?
Shane Wegner
Haha it happens enough that it has its own trope. It’s not quite Malaya, but I’m referring to the overall idea of Tsundere not caring.
Z
I think it’s like the “Luke I am your father”- the literal words technically may not appear in any manga/anime, but so recognizable people understand it.
(the main reason I don’t think it’s literal dialogue is because translators don’t usually mix together japanese and english the way fans do)
The sentiment is soooooo common, though. It’s a major trope in anime for a character to be really aggressive towards a person, constantly denying they like them, while being super possessive and lovestruck.
((“Luke, I am your father” is not the literal quote- the actual quote is “No, I am your father”. However ‘Luke’ makes it recognizable so it’s one of the most well-known quotes despite not *actually* appearing in any dialogue))
thejeff
“Play it again, Sam” is another iconic misquote. Both actually work better as isolated lines than the real lines would.
CJ
Actually, I probably would swear the line appears in Detective Conan between Aoko and Kaito, but I saw/read most of it as fansub (and mostly she would say Ba-kaito), but it could also be Shinichi to Ran or Heiji to Kazuha, which in and of itself makes it a trope.
Chris
“the main reason I don’t think it’s literal dialogue is because translators don’t usually mix together japanese and english the way fans do”
It may well have been found in a scanslation in the late 90s or early 00s, before commercial manga translation really took off. This is exactly the sort of phrasing you’d see all the time in those.
I really really honestly don’t get why people hate on Malaya. They act like she’s toedad.
LeslieBean4shizzle
Not true.
I don’t want Toedad to get sass from Carla.
I want Toedad IN PRISON.
I do not want Malaya (or Sal) in prison.
Thus not acting like they are the same.
Airyu
I wasn’t talking about what you said, I was talking about what I’ve seen from brief glimpses into the comments section. >~<
… You think Sal deserves to be called a poser because of superficial qualities?
Deanatay
A character can be wrong, and still be liked.
Axel
Yeah but Airyu says Sal does deserve it.
Airyu
Yeah I don’t think Malaya is wrong, from someone who doesn’t know Sal’s background, Sal would come off as a faker
Airyu
Plus Sal’s been just as if not more meaner to her than she’s been to sal imo but everyone else excuses that
LeslieBean4shizzle
Actually, no, that hasn’t been the case at all. No one, particularly me, has been excusing Sal.
You seem to be missing the idea that both Malaya and Sal are sucky people.
If some (not me) have been giving Sal more leeway, it’s likely due to the fact that Sal has taken an active effort to be less sucky while Malaya has not taken any such effort.
Airyu
I think Sal comes off as having an air of not caring when she does, which is what a loser is, so yes
Airyu
*poser, not loser
thejeff
Depends about what.
She’s definitely not adopting a cool pose for popularity, which is what Malaya’s generally accused her of.
First, Sal isn’t “faking” – her affect is the result of childhood trauma and her need to feel safe, not “trying to look cool”. So even if Sal deserves to be called a jerk sometimes, she doesn’t deserve to be called “fake”.
Second, it has become pretty clear by this point that Malaya is projecting like a drive in movie theater in the early 1960s. This makes Malaya more interesting and complex, but doesn’t excuse her actions – in fact, it makes her actions seem worse since she’s clearly a massive hypocrite.
Between those two, while I am starting to be more interested in Malaya, I am still highly amused to see her get some of her own medicine, and in a deserved fashion rather than the target projecting at her in turn. Carla sees through Malaya’s wall of BS to see the actual faker beneath.
And I hope this helps Malaya grow as a character. I’d love to see her become someone I actually like.
Finally, to be clear, I am not a Sal fan either. It’s just that I prefer to see Sal get called out for things she actually does rather than stuff she doesn’t do.
LeslieBean4shizzle
Oh – one thing that occurred to me on my drive to work.
While Malaya considers herself a “faker” because of whatever gender or body issues she has, I don’t find that part of her fake at all – that’s very true to many LGBT+ people’s experience. It certainly was to mine (I felt very weird and out of place until I realized that bisexuality was a thing that existed).
However, Malaya also does this “first year psych student” thing where she thinks she can analyze a person after a few seconds and know them. I have met people like that IRL and they are super annoying and pompous – which Malaya is. Malaya thinks she sees through people, but she doesn’t.
So when I say Malaya deserves to get called out as a faker, it’s because of THAT, not her actual issues, which are the most real thing about her.
Okay, clarification done.
Airyu
Oh, I see. Malaya doesn’t come off as pompous to me as all. To me is seems like sal is mean to her for no reason, so Malaya gives her a taste of her own medicine
Airyu
That makes sense. But I feel like everyone assumes Malaya has no truama and the only reason they dislike her is that she is she doesn’t like Sal… And from the outside, without Sal’s background, I can see why she wouldn’t. I think Malaya was a bad guy in one of Willis’s previous comics and that’s why people hate her? But I don’t see her as having done anything wrong in this comic
LeslieBean4shizzle
I don’t think any has implied they assume that Malaya has no trauma. The whole “projecting like a 50s drive in theater” thing suggests exactly the opposite – that Malaya does have an interesting backstory. Doesn’t mean people need to like her.
As to what Sal’s background looks like from the outside – why does that matter to the audience? We know Sal’s backstory. We know for a fact that Malaya is full of crap. Why would that make Malaya more sympathetic?
As far as Malaya’s actions in the comic? I just went back through her earliest tags and – yeah, Sal is mean to her in her very first comic with dialogue for no apparent reason. And Malaya seems like she’s trying then. So Sal started it, fair enough. But Malaya has dug her own grave, several times over, since then. If she was once justified, that justification has long since run out.
Kat
While I’m kind of neutral on Malaya, given that we know very little about her other than the fact that she’s been recently revealed as projecting and completely unsure of herself, I get this opinion.
Interesting backstory does not always absolve a character’s actions. Previous trauma is not license to be an unrepentent arse. A character and a person stand on their decisions and should be judged on them. What is more telling about Malaya than her relationship with Sal is that we don’t see anyone other than Marcie(? I think that’s the correct name) that she actually seems to get along with. We see her interact with several other characters, but rarely favorably. Ergo, my dislike of her is not based on Sal V. Malaya, which is just two people who don’t get along not getting along, but on watching the rest of her interactions.
And now I read TheJeff’s comments.
Airyu
I don’t know what to say, other that sorry I don’t agree? I think the characters pov matters more than what the audience knows.
thejeff
How are we supposed to judge characters based on things we don’t know about them?
165 thoughts on “Sprain”
Ana Chronistic
Carla-grade apathy is a full contact sport
Deanatay
Carla-sempai, please teach me your apathy calisthenics technique!
Doctor_Who
You heard her, Malaya, Carla doesn’t sell any of her natural aloofness.
Paradoxius
She also doesn’t sell internal sense of gender identity.
sirconanad
Carla and Malaya,
sitting on the roof.
…
More like standing, wait Carla smokes? Nice one.
Wack'd
More like one times four hundred and twenty, what uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
Clif
I thought it was some kind of candy on a stick, but she is holding it like a cigarette. But it’s got an odd bend. I don’t know.
Wack'd
It’s a blunt.
Megan Rivera
it’s not a blunt, it’s a joint or a spliff. Blunts are wrapped in cigar/tobacco leaves. Her spliff is white which means she used wrapping papers or a cigarette.
Clif
Well, that does explain Carla’s original comment. And here I thought she got high on engineering.
Kaidah
Carla gets high on Carla.
Wack'd
Huh!
Marsh Maryrose
If I’m remembering correctly, Clif is one of the few other codgers like myself who has actually used a slide rule.
And is therefore presumptivley familiar, from a young age, with the wildwood weed.
Bicycle Bill
I was trained in the proper care and feeding of a slipstick too.
Ryek Hvek
Slide rules rule ~ Cackle-ators drool
Geneseepaws
I saw one in rosewood and real ivory once, it was from the late 18th Century. It was very pretty wood work, but was too big and bulky. I still have my K+E in the real leath box. But no longer have the round one. Dunno where it went.
Needfuldoer
Is that what you’d call the little crop growing in the back corner of the gas station lot, where everyone dumped their ashtrays?
Agemegos
Carla and Malaya standing on the roof
Each shows the other she is more aloof?
Meagan
Yeah 🙂
Mishyana
More like aROOF, am I right? Eh? Eh??
Oh god, I’m so sorry
King Daniel
We’ve seen Carla smoke before.
(check the hovertext)
plasticwrap
thanks for reminding me.
God, stealing someone’s jay is even more fucked up than not offering when someone you know smokes runs into you.
Seregiel
That’s actually a really cool etiquette thing. Thank you for sharing.
Shane Wegner
Haha she does work really hard on that not working at all image
Shane Wegner
“B-baka. It’s not like I CARE or anything!”
CJ
So, does this refer to a specific manga series or does it happen in most?
Shane Wegner
Haha it happens enough that it has its own trope. It’s not quite Malaya, but I’m referring to the overall idea of Tsundere not caring.
Z
I think it’s like the “Luke I am your father”- the literal words technically may not appear in any manga/anime, but so recognizable people understand it.
(the main reason I don’t think it’s literal dialogue is because translators don’t usually mix together japanese and english the way fans do)
The sentiment is soooooo common, though. It’s a major trope in anime for a character to be really aggressive towards a person, constantly denying they like them, while being super possessive and lovestruck.
If you want to lose the rest of your day to TV Tropes -> https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Tsundere
((“Luke, I am your father” is not the literal quote- the actual quote is “No, I am your father”. However ‘Luke’ makes it recognizable so it’s one of the most well-known quotes despite not *actually* appearing in any dialogue))
thejeff
“Play it again, Sam” is another iconic misquote. Both actually work better as isolated lines than the real lines would.
CJ
Actually, I probably would swear the line appears in Detective Conan between Aoko and Kaito, but I saw/read most of it as fansub (and mostly she would say Ba-kaito), but it could also be Shinichi to Ran or Heiji to Kazuha, which in and of itself makes it a trope.
Chris
“the main reason I don’t think it’s literal dialogue is because translators don’t usually mix together japanese and english the way fans do”
It may well have been found in a scanslation in the late 90s or early 00s, before commercial manga translation really took off. This is exactly the sort of phrasing you’d see all the time in those.
As for the quote that everyone knows but which never actually appeared in the source, that’s a trope of its own: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeamMeUpScotty
Wack'd
I wouldn’t listen to this advice. There’s basically no evidence Carla has ever successfully convinced anyone she doesn’t care.
thejeff
She’s convinced plenty of commenters.
Emperor Norton II
Most of whom tends to look at one specific strip for their “GOTCHA!” moments, then completely ignoring the ones that are immediately following it.
They are also generally not taking into consideration a lot of the context that is necessary to understand her behaviour.
Tandel
The finest Tsundere?
A-grade?
Asuka?
Asuka.
Doctor_Who
“I-it’s not like I care what grade you give me, or anything. Baka!”
Actually, the best tsundere can express that sentiment with a toss of the head and a mere “Hmph!”
ValdVin
And the smirk, which is mandatory.
laladoria
Smirk might not be the right word for that face…unless I’m missing a joke.
ValdVin
Yeah, my terminology may be off. But whatever it’s called, what she does with the mouth is part of the tsundere whole.
Catullus
I usually see it described as a pout.
ValdVin
Aha!
Message received: I do need to watch more anime.
plasticwrap
First of all, no. That title goes to Taiga of Toradora.
Second, Misato best girl.
Kensou
I’ll see your “best girl” and raise you “best character in the story”.
Roborat
Yup, I was going to say Taiga if nobody else did.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
Garbage-Roof 2: The Garbaging?
Wack'd
Gender Roof
Marsh Maryrose
I’m worried that one of these days, Garbage Roof is going to wind up like the stateroom scene in A Night at the Opera.
Geneseepaws
You’d have to be an old coot to get that reference.
S/f: (honk)
And one egg.
LeslieBean4shizzle
Is anyone else SUPER SATISFIED that Malaya just got her usual line to Sal thrown back in her face super casual by Carla?
Wack'd
“Is Malaya fakey”, the longest comment thread in Dumbing of Age history, locked after three thousand two hundred responses
Airyu
I actually really like Malaya and think Sal deserves everything Malaya throws at her, but I feel super alone in that opinion
BarerMender
You really are.
Airyu
I really really honestly don’t get why people hate on Malaya. They act like she’s toedad.
LeslieBean4shizzle
Not true.
I don’t want Toedad to get sass from Carla.
I want Toedad IN PRISON.
I do not want Malaya (or Sal) in prison.
Thus not acting like they are the same.
Airyu
I wasn’t talking about what you said, I was talking about what I’ve seen from brief glimpses into the comments section. >~<
3-I
… You think Sal deserves to be called a poser because of superficial qualities?
Deanatay
A character can be wrong, and still be liked.
Axel
Yeah but Airyu says Sal does deserve it.
Airyu
Yeah I don’t think Malaya is wrong, from someone who doesn’t know Sal’s background, Sal would come off as a faker
Airyu
Plus Sal’s been just as if not more meaner to her than she’s been to sal imo but everyone else excuses that
LeslieBean4shizzle
Actually, no, that hasn’t been the case at all. No one, particularly me, has been excusing Sal.
You seem to be missing the idea that both Malaya and Sal are sucky people.
If some (not me) have been giving Sal more leeway, it’s likely due to the fact that Sal has taken an active effort to be less sucky while Malaya has not taken any such effort.
Airyu
I think Sal comes off as having an air of not caring when she does, which is what a loser is, so yes
Airyu
*poser, not loser
thejeff
Depends about what.
She’s definitely not adopting a cool pose for popularity, which is what Malaya’s generally accused her of.
LeslieBean4shizzle
A couple things.
First, Sal isn’t “faking” – her affect is the result of childhood trauma and her need to feel safe, not “trying to look cool”. So even if Sal deserves to be called a jerk sometimes, she doesn’t deserve to be called “fake”.
Second, it has become pretty clear by this point that Malaya is projecting like a drive in movie theater in the early 1960s. This makes Malaya more interesting and complex, but doesn’t excuse her actions – in fact, it makes her actions seem worse since she’s clearly a massive hypocrite.
Between those two, while I am starting to be more interested in Malaya, I am still highly amused to see her get some of her own medicine, and in a deserved fashion rather than the target projecting at her in turn. Carla sees through Malaya’s wall of BS to see the actual faker beneath.
And I hope this helps Malaya grow as a character. I’d love to see her become someone I actually like.
Finally, to be clear, I am not a Sal fan either. It’s just that I prefer to see Sal get called out for things she actually does rather than stuff she doesn’t do.
LeslieBean4shizzle
Oh – one thing that occurred to me on my drive to work.
While Malaya considers herself a “faker” because of whatever gender or body issues she has, I don’t find that part of her fake at all – that’s very true to many LGBT+ people’s experience. It certainly was to mine (I felt very weird and out of place until I realized that bisexuality was a thing that existed).
However, Malaya also does this “first year psych student” thing where she thinks she can analyze a person after a few seconds and know them. I have met people like that IRL and they are super annoying and pompous – which Malaya is. Malaya thinks she sees through people, but she doesn’t.
So when I say Malaya deserves to get called out as a faker, it’s because of THAT, not her actual issues, which are the most real thing about her.
Okay, clarification done.
Airyu
Oh, I see. Malaya doesn’t come off as pompous to me as all. To me is seems like sal is mean to her for no reason, so Malaya gives her a taste of her own medicine
Airyu
That makes sense. But I feel like everyone assumes Malaya has no truama and the only reason they dislike her is that she is she doesn’t like Sal… And from the outside, without Sal’s background, I can see why she wouldn’t. I think Malaya was a bad guy in one of Willis’s previous comics and that’s why people hate her? But I don’t see her as having done anything wrong in this comic
LeslieBean4shizzle
I don’t think any has implied they assume that Malaya has no trauma. The whole “projecting like a 50s drive in theater” thing suggests exactly the opposite – that Malaya does have an interesting backstory. Doesn’t mean people need to like her.
As to what Sal’s background looks like from the outside – why does that matter to the audience? We know Sal’s backstory. We know for a fact that Malaya is full of crap. Why would that make Malaya more sympathetic?
As far as Malaya’s actions in the comic? I just went back through her earliest tags and – yeah, Sal is mean to her in her very first comic with dialogue for no apparent reason. And Malaya seems like she’s trying then. So Sal started it, fair enough. But Malaya has dug her own grave, several times over, since then. If she was once justified, that justification has long since run out.
Kat
While I’m kind of neutral on Malaya, given that we know very little about her other than the fact that she’s been recently revealed as projecting and completely unsure of herself, I get this opinion.
Interesting backstory does not always absolve a character’s actions. Previous trauma is not license to be an unrepentent arse. A character and a person stand on their decisions and should be judged on them. What is more telling about Malaya than her relationship with Sal is that we don’t see anyone other than Marcie(? I think that’s the correct name) that she actually seems to get along with. We see her interact with several other characters, but rarely favorably. Ergo, my dislike of her is not based on Sal V. Malaya, which is just two people who don’t get along not getting along, but on watching the rest of her interactions.
And now I read TheJeff’s comments.
Airyu
I don’t know what to say, other that sorry I don’t agree? I think the characters pov matters more than what the audience knows.
thejeff
How are we supposed to judge characters based on things we don’t know about them?